It's all about your perspective

You better have at least 10 spare minutes if you're going to read this blog post, because first gotta read THIS.  It's quite possibly my favorite post from my favorite blogger, Jamie the Very Worst Missionary (lives in Costa Rica).  It doesn't matter that she's my favorite blogger because that's the only blog I ever read, right?  hehe

Now that you've read that litte gem from Jamie (what?! you still haven't?! well go read it!), lemme tell you about my situation.  The other day I had had enough.  Just enough.  I'm not exactly sure what specifically I had enough of, but I'd had enough of whatever it was.  It all came to a head when I realized that absolutley ZERO of the bajillion allergy medications I've tried over the past few weeks worked.  I live in Mexico; I don't GET allergies anymore.  Until those little cotton nightmares started floating out of the trees by the Willamette River.  I knew I was in trouble when JP said one day, "What is all that?  It looks like snow."  Yep, piles of the cotton thingies.  AND the signal that my allergies are going to flare up at any given moment.  AND, I'd never lived in Oregon since pseudofedrine became a prescription drug.  I just knew all this was going to make for a miserable time. 

JP and I have been living "out in the country" at a great little cabin that was made specifically for missionaries to use while in the States.  Cool, huh!  It's a bit far out of town (with gas prices at over $4 a gallon, it seems like it's on the moon!), but it's a great place.  I was starting to get irritated at the distance we had to drive to reach civilization.  Now, I grew up in Salem, but was done with small towns the moment I set eyes on Queretaro, population 1.5 million.  I always thought that if we ever move back to the States permanently, we'd live in Seattle.  It just sounds cool.  It's big, and very Northwesty.  Although I may develop seasonal depression after about 3 days in constant rain...  Anyhow, I SWORE that I would NEVER live in a small town.  Salem is the absolute smallest I could handle.  So I may have been moping around feeling sorry for myself because we live so far outside of the city.

That's when the allergies came on full steam.  I cried.  (yeah, that just made my snotty, sneazy mess even messier)  I hated being "out in the country" where I have to drive a LONG time (like TEN minutes! gasp!) to even get to a pharmacy. 

Then, JP looked out the window and said, "We are SO blessed to actually get to live out here."  What?!  What are you talking about?!  Don't you see?!  My ALLERGIES are KILLING ME!  And YOU aren't the one who has to DRIVE all the time to get us places!  (Drivers' license situation to be fixed soon!)  And he was just so happy, so content to be living where we are living.  Because we get to see Mt. Hood from our house.  Because we have cherry orchards that change colors all the time right outside our window.  Because we can hear frogs outside at night instead of neighbors' disco-club-music.  Because God gave us an almost free place to live where it's just the two of us living in one house. 

So I felt like a moron.  We ARE "SO blessed to actually get to live out here!"  JP had the perspecive on the whole situation that I needed.  God TOTALLY provided everything we needed for our time in the States.  We really couldn't ask for a better place to live.  And I was complaining about it all. 

Well, God's given me a break over the past two days from my allergies, so that's helped my attitude a lot.  But I've also realized that I can't always be the pessimist.  I need to see the GOOD in our situation instead of the BAD.  And there's like a million times more good things in our living situation than there are bad things anyway, so that shouldn't be too hard!  God's good at getting my attention and making changes for the better in my life!

God Provided

We've officially begun the process for JP's residency and citizenship!  So we get to stay here for longer:

We've also been living at this great place in a cherry orchard for the past month!  God pretty much has supplied all we need.  Can't complain about that!

Other People Like Me

It's been hard to be in the States for the past 5 months.  Nothing bad has happened or anything, but I'm just not very gringa-ish anymore.  Like maybe I don't "fit" here.  (<-- definitely requires "finger quotes" with the word "fit") 

Anyhow, another missionary friend, who's been in the States for almost a year, had this excellent idea to get together all the missionaries, former missionaries, and future missionaries from our church, and just... hang.  We've met twice now, and it's bee neat to see what God is doing in everyones' lives.  We have people who are back in the States somewhat permanently, others who are back and going to move to a new country, others who are in the process of becoming missionaries, and some who are called to be missionaries, and JP and I who are just in a weird place.  And everyone has stories of how God is working in their lives.  (Well I suppose we ALL should have those stories!)  But it's been cool to get to know more people like me, who may be just a little out of place, but want to follow what God has next for them!  :)

Rules of Visiting Others

In Queretaro, anytime I make a time/date to go somewhere with someone, if it's more than 24 hours before the event I will contact them to confirm our meeting.  People expect it.  If a friend and I decide on Sunday that we'll meet for coffee on Thursday night, someone must confirm that on either wednesday or thursday or it won't happen.  I usually text a "see you tonite at 7!" on thursday afternoon, and shortly get the reply "Starbucks in Jardines, right?"  That means we'll both be at Starbucks in Jardines at 7ish.  The majority of our outings are sponaneous in Queretaro - 9:30pm on Wednesday night after church, whoever is still there when the church is being locked up may hear "we're going to tacos in Tejeda, see you all there in 15 minutes!" and some people show up.  Or sometime between getting to church on sunday morning and the time the service ends, we're magically set to go to the "Airport Corn and Gorditas" (about a 40 minute drive into the countryside for the best corn on the cob and gorditas EVER).  Sometimes a 8pm phone call for something totally unrelated ends up in us going to friends' house for snacks and a movie immediately after hanging up. 

So, because I know that pretty much everyone who isn't a college student in the USA plans outings in advance, we've been calling people maybe 3 to 10 days in advance of meeting with them.  Then I call them the day before the event.  And most of the time I get, "Oh, can you guys not make it?" or "Did something come up for you?"  Maybe the fact that I call to confirm raises questions in their minds about our availabilty?  I'm confused...  So then we quit confirming and just showed up at peoples' homes when we hadn't spoken with them for a week.  And they were expecting us!  Amazing!  If I asked someone in Queretaro to come over a week from now, and I didn't hear from them and I didn't call them, I wouldn't expect them be there. 

I guess I'm just in the process learning my own culture all over again, this time as an adult, as I'd never been an adult in the United States before! 

Hey There!

I don't think I'd ever hit the mark of not having blogged for two months.  Well, two months of no blog flew by in February, so I think I owe a post. 

As you (should!) know, we're in USA now.  We have lots to accomplish before moving back to Queretaro - hopefully sometime the beginning of 2013, like, less than 12 months from now... we hope!  But we'll just let God be in control of that one!

So SUPER quick, here's what we've done since coming to the USA!

Celebrated our first Christmas in the USA!

Went to Disneyland!

JP saw snow for the first time!

Went to visit friends in Atlanta and Nashville!

Spent an entire day in the snow in the Cascade Mountains!

God provided all we needed to do all we've needed to do so far.  We've stayed in 7 different housed since leaving our house in Queretaro, and have had the needed transportation to visit the people we needed to visit and go the places we've needed to go. 

What's in the future for us?

JP will be applying for US citizenship, and starting English classes at the local community college.  We'll both be going to International Teams' training in July, and another ministry training in August!

We're also trying to get our financial support up to 100% during this time so we can be fully funded and move back to Mexico once our other tasks are complete!

Our Last Week in Queretaro

Our last week in Queretaro was a busy one!  We are very grateful to Walt and DiAne who took us in for THREE weeks while we packed up our house and turned it back in to its owners.  We had some unexpected events during our last week - like a minor operation for me which had us staying about 5 days longer than anticipated (everything went excellent!).

During our last week...

We had nightly prayer services for "Week of Prayer" at Horizonte Church

(and it was COLD!)

Me, JP, and Angie:

We went to the community of Pilares in the State of Mexico (about 2 hours from QRO) with Walt and DiAne, where there is a Compassion International project, and where they are beginning micro-finance courses.

JP, a chicken, and DiAne:

We had our goodbye party at RenovArte Cafe (hosted by our friends Phil and Sandy in their place of ministry!) one Saturday night, and TONS of friends came to hang out with us!

Us with my good friends Karen and Pam!

Alex, JP, me, Job, and Cristina at the cafe!

Some of the people who came to our goodbye party!

Part of my womens' group at Horizonte Church (Angie, Moni, me, Brenda, and Silvia)

And JP got his official diploma from college - he's now a "professional" in International Business.  :)

We had an excellent time hanging out with friends and family in Queretaro.  We'll miss living there for several months, but we'll be back!  

Bienvenidos al USA!

We are here!  After an exciting weekend of a minor operation for me, a good-sized earthquake (6.4!)experienced from JP's dad's 4th floor apartment of in Mexico City, our favorite fried quesadillas in Coyoacan, an all day travel day on Monday, and an immigration official that didn't want to let ME into the USA (I'm still a US citizen!!), we're settling down for a few weeks at my parents house in Salem Oregon! 

We're thankful for God's provision through the past two weeks of craziness, for parents in two countries who let us stay in their  homes at a moment's notice, for Walt and Diane in Queretaro who took us in to their house for three weeks, and for indoor heating! 

No pictures this time, but soon!  :)

A note about the earthquake:
I'd been in 5 good-sized earthquakes in Oregon, California, and El Salvador, but this one beat all.  I'm pretty sure the thing lasted about a minute, and it was the wavy kind, not the bouncy kind.  We (JP, his dad, and I) were in the tv room of the apartment and we got to the door, got the door unlocked (there are three deadbolts on it, all of which open from the inside with a key!) and got to the stair well, at which point the power went out, and being 8pm it was dark.  All the neighbors came out of their apartments too, some of the ladies were screaming and others were calling for their pets.  We made it down to ground level, bumping into lots of neighbors, by the time the quake stopped and the lights came on.  In general, people seemed calm, and thankfully, no one was hurt, and in all Mexico City no one died!

Sooo...

SOOO much has happened in the past two weeks, it's crazy!  BUT, we're on our last day of continuous internet access until we figure something out in Oregon, and it's midnight, and we have to be up at like 5am... SO - we stayed longer in Queretaro than we'd planned, going to Mexico City Saturday morning, in Oregon Monday night, JP had his "titualacion" (like graduation for when you're a professional) tonight, said goodbye to everyone and their pet rock TWICE so far this week, tired, looking forward to Paddingtons Pizza, don't have a date to come back to Queretaro yet, going to bed. 
That sums me up for this week!
And here's a picture! 

(Us with Luis, Sandy, and girls)

And this is yummy:

(and big)

At some point in the not too distant future, we'll get a good update on this blog.  Some day!  I promise!

Brief Update!

Wow it's been a LONG time since we've posted anything on the blog!  We're in the process of moving right now!  A week from today we move out of our house and in with our friends Walt and Diane.  Then off to Mexico City for a week, then on to Oregon for Christmas and New Years!  After that we'll be doing a good deal of travelling in the States.  Of course we'll have more info as we get a more concrete schedule!

Highlights of this week:

• We were able to meet with a local polititian and his wife to give them a Bible and share a bit about Christ!!  I've been going to their home 4 days a week to help their daughters with their Englsih homework, but we had bee praying about meeting with them to share about Christ.  More about that if you get our newsletters!
• We sold our car yesterday at a REALLY good price!
• Today is the 1st anniversary of our friends Phil and Sandy's cafe ministry to college students!  The ministry is growing bunches!  We'll be at their celebration tonight!

I unfortunately haven't taken many pictures in the past few weeks, but I'll leave you with this one from a brief trip to Tequisquiapan (try pronouncing THAT!)  a couple months ago:

Goodbyes and Holidays!

Our good friends Justin and Lluvia left Queretaro this past weekend to move on to a new ministry assignment.  I've worked with them the whole time I've been in Queretaro, and JP worked with Justin even a bit longer than that!  So we're sad to see them go, but happy that they will be used in another country soon!

Jean Paul, Jessica, Lluvia, Justin, and our good friends Sandy and Luis.

September 16th was Mexican Independence Day, so we got to celebrating on the 15th and 16th!  My first Mexican Independence actually being a Mexican!

We celebrated at church this year :)

Some of the ladies that participated in the "traditional dress" contest at church:

JP and his mom in front of the Queretaro State Capitol building

Every time is food time on this blog:

Here's a common snack in Queretaro: a big crispy pork rind with cabbage, tomatoes, onions, salsa, and thin strips of PICKLED PORK SKIN on top.  NOT one of my favorites, but it's quite popular!

This IS one of my favorites, in fact there were made at my house by me for lunch on the 16th - Queretaro Guajolotes (wah-ho-LO-tays) or in Mexico City they're called pambazos (pahm-BAH-sohs)  - sandwiches where the bread is dipped in sauce and roasted, filled with beans, cheese, chorizo sausage, onion, lettuce, and cooked squares of potato and carrot.  REALLY YUMMY

And the typical elotes (ey-LO-tays) - corn on the cob covered in mayonaise, grated white cheese, chile powder and lime!  We had a guest from Guadalajara at our house for lunch the other day and we were talking about typical foods in Queretaro and Guadalajara, and he just about gagged when we said we eat mayonaise and cheese on corn...  I guess that's only in this region of Mexico!

We had a great weekend!